Tag: Mexican

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Taco Tuesdays

Jordan Beatty (Photo: Michael Donahue)

Along with his tacos, Jordan Beatty is making two-pound colossal burritos at his Taco Tuesdays setup at Memphis Kitchen Co-Op.

Beatty, 29, isn’t Mexican, but, he says, “I would definitely say Mexican food is part of my vibe.” And, he adds, “I wanted to share my passion for Mexican food with other people who would enjoy it. I’ve been working on my Mexican food for about two years now. I’m really honing in on it. I’m really proud of my product.”

Tacos were Beatty’s introduction to Mexican food. “The first time I ever ate Mexican food was probably Taco Bell. My father was regional manager at Taco Bell for six or seven years. He managed four different stores, so we ate Taco Bell. I have three brothers my size. We are very large men. We ate Taco Bell almost every night ’cause that’s what my dad could get for free.”

Mexican food gives him “a good feeling,” Beatty says. “It’s very straightforward and honest. The ingredients speak for themselves without any real intense culinary techniques. It’s just pure flavors put together.”

Opera singing was Beatty’s first vibe. “When I was in elementary school, I wanted to be an opera singer. Not a chef. I would sing opera music to anyone who would listen.”

A “true baritone,” Beatty, who sang in the choir in middle school, high school, and college, liked the “emotion, the intensity” of opera music. Cooking wasn’t on his radar. “I come from a long line of people who can’t cook at all.”

Little Caesars pizza was Beatty’s first restaurant job. “I was the sign shaker from 11-3 p.m. And then I would go inside and scrub and clean.”

One sign was shaped like a guitar. “You’d see me dancing on the side of the road with that sign.”

Beatty also cooked. “They showed me how to make pizzas. And then I started working the line. I learned how to make dough.”

In college, Beatty wanted to be a teacher. He later opened Tiger Paws Landscape, his own landscape business, but he closed it after he developed “an allergy to trees, grass, and weeds.”

Beatty, who married a professional chef, Lee Anna Beatty, while he had his landscaping business, told her he was interested in learning to cook. “I just didn’t really know where to start. It just so happened that week chef Spencer McMillin posted on his Facebook page that he needed a dishwasher for the space where he was. Caritas Village. I started the next day.”

He rose from dishwasher to sous-chef, thanks to McMillin’s guidance. “I loved it. I went straight into it. I haven’t looked back.”

Beatty also worked at Tamboli’s Pasta & Pizza, The Vault, and FLIP SIDE Memphis before he moved to Memphis Kitchen Co-op and began working for co-owner Richard McCracken’s Amplified Meal Prep.

He also became his wife’s chef at Busy Bee Catering. “We do a little bit of everything. I would say mostly we are Asian fusion, Mexican inspired, and classic Americana.”

Beatty’s Taco Tuesdays is a part of Busy Bee Catering. “We’ve been serving what I call a premium taco bar for a while.”

He held his first official Taco Tuesday on August 8th. “I make my own adobo sauce, which is the basis of a lot of my Mexican cooking. A mixture of peppers, onions, garlic, vinegar, spices, and oil.

“I marinate my meats in it and my mushrooms. And that’s how I make my taco sauce.”

He offers chicken, beef, shrimp, barbacoa, and marinated mushroom tacos. “And I do one chef special every week that’s going to change.”

His first one was pollo adobo blanco. “Adobo beurre blanc over marinated chicken.”

And, yes, Beatty still sings. “Constantly. But not really for other people’s enjoyment. Just my own.”

Instead of opera, Beatty sings rock, folk, Americana, and country music.

“That’s one of the great parts of being a chef. The kitchen is my stage. I can just enjoy my time and sing and just kind of have a good time. And as long as I’m doing that, I don’t feel like I’m working at all.”

Memphis Kitchen Co-Op is at 7946 Fischer Steel Road in Cordova.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Torchy’s Tacos Brings Tex-Mex to Town Next Year

CREDIT: Courtesy Torchy's Tacos

Courtesy Torchy’s Tacos

Memphis Flyer’s Taco Week may be well in the rearview mirror, but that doesn’t mean we can’t continue to celebrate the traditional Mexican dish. But each state has its own spin on what makes for a good taco, and Torchy’s Tacos are bringing its Tex-Mex approach to Tennessee for the first time.

The Austin, Texas-based “fast casual taco brand” has a wide variety of street-style options on its menu, built around chicken, carnitas, barbacoa, sausage, beef, salmon, and plenty of other interesting twists. For those with dietary restrictions, there’s a separate gluten-conscious menu. Torchy’s also keeps things fresh through a rotating Taco of the Month, with November’s Chili Wagon, for example, comprising “New Mexico red chile stewed chicken with fried poblano strip, onion, avocado sauce, fresh cilantro, and a lime wedge served on a corn tortilla.”

I texted my sister, a current Dallas resident, for her thoughts. “It’s good! A bit trendier than your average taco chain,” she said. “Their street corn is really good, and so is the green chile queso.”

Torchy’s Tacos recently signed a lease for 711 S. Mendenhall Road in East Memphis, and is set to open in either the spring or summer of 2021. (There are plans to bring further locations to Tennessee in the future, as well.) That’s a long way off, but there are plenty of excellent local taco joints to try in the meantime.



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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Sushi Jimmi to join La Hacienda Mexican Restaurant October 6th

Jimmy ‘Sushi Jimmi’ Sinh



Is Sushi Jimmi about to become “Taco Jimmi”?

“No, no, no,” says Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh. But the Memphis chef has taken a job at La Hacienda Mexican restaurant in Cordova, where he will begin working October 6th.

Sinh has been working as executive chef at Saltwater Crab, where he originally began working earlier this year. 

He closed his restaurant, Sushi Jimmi Asian fusion restaurant, at 2895 Poplar on May 23rd, 2019, saying he  wanted to spend more time with his family. He closed his food truck the next day. Sinh says he put too much money ($250,000) into the restaurant, though he says it was successful. He planned to move to Florida, but his family didn’t want to let the restaurant go. He reopened Sushi Jimmi at the same location on June 15th, but it closed for a second time at the end of July.

“Last year, when I closed my restaurant down, I lost everything,” Sinh says. “And when COVID-19 hit, I lost even more. I lost completely everything. And my friend Temoor Sarwar and his family own [La Hacienda] and he asked me to come in and work at the restaurant serving my food.”

But before making plans to join La Hacienda, Sinh went to Saltwater Crab, where he originally worked for about two and a half months. “They hired me and I took care of what needed to be taken care of.”

And, he says, he “also gave the customers what the customers were missing and really wanted. Really good food in Midtown. They needed a good sushi restaurant in Midtown in the Overton Square area. I decided to bring in my sushi, which everyone missed, and it went really well.”

Sinh got laid off from Saltwater Crab when the restaurant closed during the pandemic, but he returned when it reopened for business last May. They’re now doing  “amazing numbers” at Saltwater Crab, says Sinh. “That means we’re doing something right.”

September 30th will be Sinh’s last day at Saltwater Crab. He’s proud of what he accomplished there. “I created this for Midtown to enjoy.”

But, he says, “I want to do more things for myself. It’s my turn to proceed with my chef life, which is what I’m doing. So, I’m collaborating with different chefs. Anyone who wants to collaborate with me and just make a quick menu for the weekend. All around the country. I could go to California next week and collaborate with a chef for two days and move to the next city.

“That’s always been my dream. To travel and see different things. I haven’t been to a lot of places. I’ve always been trapped behind the box. I want to get outside the box to places I’ve never been and try new food. The only way to be a good chef is to travel.”

Sinh also plans to be on camera. “I’m planning to make a YouTube channel to show people where to go eat. And I’ll be doing a few scenarios to show people different places I’ve traveled to. Also, I’ll be showing people how to cook a certain food. Explain to them the knowledge they need to know when they eat at the restaurant.”

People need to know how to eat something correctly, he says. “If you don’t eat it right, you’ll have the worst experience. That’s very important to me because I want them to enjoy my food. Not just pay for it.”

Sinh will collaborate as a chef with Sarwar at La Hacienda. “He is the main person there. He is the manager. He is the chef. And it’s his family’s restaurant. We’re collaborating anywhere from three to four days a week.”

They will have a taste tasting at the restaurant in less than a week. “We’re going to be cooking all day to test out the food we’re going to put on the menu.”

The food will be Asian and Mexican, Sinh says. “It’ll be fusion. A little bit of both. Everything that I ever really cooked has a little bit of Hispanic feeling in it ‘cause I’m from Los Angeles, California, and there’s a lot of Mexican and Asian fused together.”

For now, Memphis will be Sinh’s home base, but he plans to move out of town when his family moves. “I’m living with my parents. I’ve always been a family-oriented guy. I go where my parents want to go. You only have one (set of) parents. You don’t want to end up not being with them on their last day or whatever. I want to be that good son that takes care of their parents. Where they want to go is where I want to go.”

That includes Sinh’s wife and their five kids. “Pretty much the whole, entire family.”

As for his nickname, Sinh says it was when he was working at the old Saki restaurant “One day I heard one of my customers just call me ‘Sushi Jimmi.’ And that is exactly where it came from.”

La Hacienda is at 1760 North Germantown Parkway in Cordova.

Saltwater Crab is at 2059 Madison; (901) 624-2920

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Now open: Sabrosura and Burrito Blues.

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Sabrosura claims to serve Mexican and Cuban food; in fact, its scope is even broader. I spotted Peruvian and Ecuadorian dishes on the menu. But don’t let that scare you. The different strands are brought together in the person of Sabrosura’s owner, Karen Otero.

Originally from Ecuador, Otero married a Cuban man and moved to Memphis, where she has worked in Mexican restaurants for the past 12 years. She says she decided to step out on her own because she knows the business and because you can’t get good Latin food in the Medical District. About the second point, at least, she’s right.

“I like Cuban food the best,” Otero confesses. “The way they cook is like the way we cook in Ecuador. Lots of bold flavors.”

Justin Fox Burks

Karen Otero

Despite having been open for just a month, Sabrosura seems to be hitting its stride. When I visited for lunch, there was a decent-size crowd of doctors and nurses from Le Bonheur, as well as construction workers and elevator mechanics from a site down the street.

When it comes to Tex-Mex, Otero has her bases covered. Want nachos? She’ll make you nachos. But if you’re interested in what sets Sabrosura apart, venture into the menu’s less-frequented quarters, especially the section marked “Specialty of the House.”

There you’ll find the Arroz Tapada de Pollo ($11.99), a fragrant rice dish of grilled chicken, mushrooms, onions, and poblano peppers. I should note that, like Peter Piper, I’m picky about peppers. Add too many and they take over, overwhelming other flavors with a sharp bitterness. But Otero’s Arroz Tapado is just right: piquant and sizzling and seasoned to perfection.

Or hey, why not order a steak?

Yeah, you read that right. Otero’s Steak Mexicano ($13.25) is one of the better things I’ve eaten this month. A skirt steak that’s been marinated in Mexican mojo criollo, it’s grilled à la ranchera and served with pickled onions and avocado. Squeeze a little lime over it, and remember to thank God — or your lucky stars, or whatever — for the geopolitical forces that bring talented cooks from Latin America to Memphis.

Picture this: It’s 11:30 p.m. You’re at a bachelor party on Beale Street. You’re tipsy, it’s noisy, you need a break. Where will you go?

You could definitely do worse than Burrito Blues. After the fashion of a Chipotle or a Qdoba, this fast-casual Mexican joint offers build-your-own burritos and bowls. The food is fresh; it’s made from scratch daily; and for Beale, it’s distinctly affordable. There’s even a local product on the menu — the rice is from Windmill in Jonesboro, Arkansas).

You know the drill. White or brown rice? Black or pinto beans? To top your burrito, you can choose from a variety of proteins — beef, chicken, sautéed veggies — but I liked the beef options best. The steak is salty and satisfying. And the brisket — seasoned with peppadew peppers and house-smoked — is actually kind of special.

The restaurant occupies the former site of Johnny G’s Creole Kitchen. With its earth tones, exposed brick walls, and relaxed blues music, Burrito Blues is a little oasis in the neon desert. Along Beale, the pace is frantic, but in here, the vibe is chill.

Burrito Blues is open for lunch during the week, and manager Richard Magevney says he’s already seeing crowds from AutoZone Park and FedExForum. On weekends, the dining room stays open till midnight. After that, they’ll serve burritos and margaritas to drunken stumblers through a service window until 3 a.m.

Because on Beale Street, that’s how it is. You have to do high-volume; you have to do sweet drinks. Considering the framework within which they’re operating, Burrito Blues has come up with a fresh, tasty, affordable option.